When you buy a new car that has SiriusXM radio in it.

[inachu]

Honestly, I find satellite radio to be quite a bit worse that most clear FM signals in my area. Most noticeable (again, to my rather undiscerning ears) is the seeming lack of dynamic range. I guess that is what you get when you have an audio stream that is essentially compressed twice, once for disc space and once more to conserve broadcast bandwidth.

XMRADIO has more Dynamic Range than Sirius.

 

[HeXen]

Have you contacted them about these big dead zones? They generally have terrestrial broadcasts in areas with lots of big buildings that would block out the signal and if you have buildings big enough and dense enough for things to cut out for a a quarter of a minute, it's probably a market they might care to improve.

As a potential customer that seems to me to be their problem. It's not like they have very good sound quality anyway and during my 5 day demo, I wasn't that impressed with the selections of stations, maybe 3 that I would listen to and perhaps 1 more on occasion but for the price to sound quality ratio, its no biggie.
I check out music online and download what I like to my car's hard drive. I could steam Pandora or whatever from my cell phone to my head unit if I had a data subscription but using track phone for now

 

[Brian Stirling]

Honestly, I find satellite radio to be quite a bit worse that most clear FM signals in my area. Most noticeable (again, to my rather undiscerning ears) is the seeming lack of dynamic range. I guess that is what you get when you have an audio stream that is essentially compressed twice, once for disc space and once more to conserve broadcast bandwidth.

I'm not sure of the exact compression methods employed and I think they use different techniques for different content. Pre-recorded material can be worked over many times to maximize compression but live content is more difficult to do that.

But, no matter what methods employed the end result is, well, crap! The audio quality is worse the the lowest bit rate mp3's I've ever heard most of the time. I did notice the quality at times was less bad and at other times it was painfully bad.

Honestly, I find it hard to believe anybody can listen to it. Pure talk isn't so bad, but music is just awful.


Brian

 

[LTC8K6]

I grew up listening to AM radio in the car...

Sirius sounds wonderful.

Actually, I still listen to AM radio, too.

 

[toronado97]

Ya I'm not understanding the issue either. I think XM sounds just fine in my vehicle. It's easily as clear as FM is, and other than obvious obstruction situations which are very few and far between, it's worked flawlessly for over a year now. Sure I CAN use my phone, and sometimes I do, but sometimes I like listening to the stuff on Sirius as well.

 

[tortillasoup]

I can't see the point in using something like XM radio anymore when you have stuff like Pandora.

 

[ultimatebob]

I can't see the point in using something like XM radio anymore when you have stuff like Pandora.

You must live in a urban or suburban area that has good data coverage. Try using Pandora on an Edge or GPRS data connection out in the woods and let me know how enjoyable of an experience that is

 

[Scarpozzi]

I tried to convenience my wife of this but she wanted it anyway. She was using Pandora (we have the less ad version) and passing it to her radio with bluetooth.

Those of us with smartphones and decent data plans have little reason to pay for SiriusXM. I've got radios on 2 of my 3 vehicles, but not my daily driver. My truck is parked and restricted mostly to weekend or solo driving so I don't use it....my wife doesn't listen to the radio much at all so I just do Bluetooth to my Google Music/Pandora accounts on the newer vehicles...works great.

 

[mmntech]

I tried to convenience my wife of this but she wanted it anyway. She was using Pandora (we have the less ad version) and passing it to her radio with bluetooth.

I originally signed up for XM in 2006. They had better channels, better music quality, better shows, better jocks. Then Sirius took them over and said "all that stuff that made satellite awesome... get rid of it". It's not much better than terrestrial now. I only really kept it for Opie & Anthony. Then they got rid of that show last summer. I'd probably be better off just cancelling and using Songza for music, then just listen to my podcasts for talk. Money I save could go towards a beefier data plan.

 

[tortillasoup]

You must live in a urban or suburban area that has good data coverage. Try using Pandora on an Edge or GPRS data connection out in the woods and let me know how enjoyable of an experience that is

I do use Pandora on an Edge connection, it's not the end of the world as long as I'm not constantly skipping tracks, all the tracks get buffered before the current one I'm listening to finishes.

 

[exar333]

I originally signed up for XM in 2006. They had better channels, better music quality, better shows, better jocks. Then Sirius took them over and said "all that stuff that made satellite awesome... get rid of it". It's not much better than terrestrial now. I only really kept it for Opie & Anthony. Then they got rid of that show last summer. I'd probably be better off just cancelling and using Songza for music, then just listen to my podcasts for talk. Money I save could go towards a beefier data plan.

This.

I was in the same boat and the merger was terrible for existing XM users. Unfortunately, there isn't another satellite option.....:/

It is absolutely fabulous for longer trips and when cell coverage might be spotty. Plus, it is easy to use and your channels are always the same, regardless of where you are.

We just have it in one of our cars at home, and we extend it year-by-year, but only at a steep discount. Every year, we call to cancel and talk to 2-3 tiers of 'cancellation support' and usually end-up paying ~$60/year for it. That's about all it is worth until they up the quality, if ever.

 

[crashtech]

My wife likes to have Sirius/XM because we are often in areas with poor cell coverage. Also, the cell provider we must use due to the fact that it has at least some coverage out in the sticks doesn't sell data cheap enough for the amount of streaming she does.

Fortunately, she doesn't find the lack of fidelity as offensive as I do.

 

[marvdmartian]

It cuts out if I drive next to trees or tall buildings. Sometimes cutting out for over a dozen seconds. Has nothing to do with just overpass's and far worse than AM cutting out. Although not offering much better sound quality imo.

Yep, had that happen, too. Had forgotten about that. Driving through tall trees area on highway, southern exposure blocked sufficiently to cut out XM.

 

[BUTCH1]

I really want to like SiriusXM, but the fidelity is horrible even to my old, damaged ears. Is their bandwidth really in such short supply that they have to compress everything so horribly? how about dropping some unpopular channels and offering high fidelity instead? Probably because nobody gives a crap about how stuff sounds anymore. Who cares if it sounds like an antique pocket radio as long as there are 200 channels of crap to listen to.

Yup, I dropped them and have not renewed in years. The ONLY benefit is if your on a long trip you do not have to constantly scan for local stations but that's about it. IMO it sounds like a 64 MP3, muddy undefined bass, high-end cut off at around 9K, horrific ear-numbing flanging distortion, and this is all evident on a Chevy mid sized sedan with a stock stereo. I did not expect CD quality audio from XM but what they shove out is really, really bad. Also agree that there is no need for 200+ channels when a lot of the material overlaps different stations anyway. I was clear with them as to why I was discontinuing service but nothing has changed, what baffles me is those with much better sound equipment would possible be satisfied with the horrible quality and continue service.

 

[crashtech]

From the posts in this thread, I can only assume that a lot of people just can't hear the difference. I am headed towards the day when my tinnitus will overwhelm my ability to discern anything about audio, so I will be joining them eventually

 

[inachu]

From the posts in this thread, I can only assume that a lot of people just can't hear the difference. I am headed towards the day when my tinnitus will overwhelm my ability to discern anything about audio, so I will be joining them eventually

they have a cure for that now.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

There's a huge difference in quality that I notice every time. However, there are 1-2 channels that I really like but I'd rather not pay their crazy subscription fees to listen to.

 

[inachu]

I am almost into my first week with the new car and I really seem to only listen to the 80's and 90's station.

I am just happy the sound system does not sound like the deluxe sound system in the challenger. It is the worst! I might go for the lifetime one time payment because I hate being nickled and dimed each month.

 

[HeXen]

From the posts in this thread, I can only assume that a lot of people just can't hear the difference. I am headed towards the day when my tinnitus will overwhelm my ability to discern anything about audio, so I will be joining them eventually

Dude, they listen to stock radio's that came with the car and probably been listening to mp3's most of their life.
It's not like these people have Audison amp's and speakers in their car or anything. If they do it's probably something like...Kicker brand....ewww.

 

[crashtech]

Well, for many it's not hard to tell the difference even with a base model radio. The difference between CD quality and satellite is really not subtle at all.

 

[mmntech]

We just have it in one of our cars at home, and we extend it year-by-year, but only at a steep discount. Every year, we call to cancel and talk to 2-3 tiers of 'cancellation support' and usually end-up paying ~$60/year for it. That's about all it is worth until they up the quality, if ever.

I really need to get around to doing that. The guy that runs it, Scott Greenstein, is supposedly a major league a-hole. Doesn't know the first thing about radio.

Well, for many it's not hard to tell the difference even with a base model radio. The difference between CD quality and satellite is really not subtle at all.

I'm not an audiophile by any means but I can tell the difference. Even on my car's crappy speakers. I really notice it when listening to Classic Vinyl, because I have a lot of that music on CD and LP. Sirius's audio always sounds muddy. They were using really low bit rates at one point. I think as low as 64kbps on some music channels.

 

[LTC8K6]

From the posts in this thread, I can only assume that a lot of people just can't hear the difference. I am headed towards the day when my tinnitus will overwhelm my ability to discern anything about audio, so I will be joining them eventually

I have a great sounding Boston Acoustics system in my Grand Cherokee. I assure you I can hear the difference.

I just don't expect anything great from a radio broadcast.

I also don't understand why anyone does expect it.

I can't figure out where they ever heard great audio on a radio broadcast.

HD radio maybe? I've never head that.

 

[NutBucket]

HD radio sounds like crap too.

 

[jjsbasmt]

I'm with LTC8K6 and toronado97. I've had Sirius/XM for nearly 10 yrs now and love it. I also get it on my Phone/Tablet/Desktop/Laptop too. Sounds great to me on the Internet too. I tried HD Radio, but unless you live close to a major city, capturing the digital signal is problematic. I live in the country approx. 35 miles from the "burgh" in Pa. My only issue was having to swap out the vehicle antenna every two years or so due to the elements. I've now had my antenna on the dash of my car and have had no problems for 3 yrs and reception is perfect not withstanding tunnels. I have recently started listening to radio stations on my Amazon Prime account and love that too. No commercials and very nice fidelity and selection of music and the ability to fast forward thru songs I don't care for.

 

[Demo24]

There's a huge difference in quality that I notice every time. However, there are 1-2 channels that I really like but I'd rather not pay their crazy subscription fees to listen to.

Their lowest tier is apparently $6 a month including internet streaming. Might want to see if your channels are on there. What I plan to do in April, then I can just stream the channels in another car if I want.